Follow Here To Purchase 11th Hour (Women's Murder Club)

Authors: James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 978-0-316-09749-9


A spree killer unscrupulous reporter Jason Blayney has dubbed Revenge is “running the table.” Severed heads are displayed in what appears to be a “trophy garden” on the infamous Ellsworth compound. SFPD Detective Lindsay Boxer is an elderly primigravida, “a woman over thirty-five who is pregnant for the first time.”

In addition to coining the serial killer’s sobriquet, Jason Blayney continues to be unprincipled, spreading the rumour that Boxer has “lost her edge.”

Of course, Blayney is not 11th Hour’s villain. The serial slayer Revenge, a vigilante vile enough to assassinate drug dealer Chaz Smith at the Morton Academy of Music where Smith’s daughter has just finished her recital, is the most recognizable villain.

A second villain, the murderer who over the course of ten years has buried trophy heads in movie star Harry Chandler’s back garden, has been more secretive about killing—hiding body parts rather than leaving victims lying where they have been slaughtered.

Lindsay’s pregnancy notwithstanding, Lieutenant Brady assigns Boxer and her partner Rick Conklin double duty—uncover Revenge’s identity, apprehend him and end his vigilante justice; investigate the horror at the House of Heads, identify and capture the killer who has butchered the women whose heads are unearthed in Harry Chandler’s garden.

11th Hour clips along at characteristic Patterson/Paetro pace. Classic short chapters keep pages rapidly turning and provide speedy twists and turns that complicate the plot.

Chaz Smith, gunned down in the Prologue, might not be as corrupt as he first appears; then again—a twist, a turn—he might be worse. Erstwhile movie idol, womanizing, millionaire Harry Chandler might have murdered his wife, might have buried heads in his garden, or—a twist, a turn—he might have been wrongfully accused for a decade. Revenge might be a cop, might be Chief Warren Jacobi, or—twist, turn—might be William Randall.

Obviously a murder/mystery, 11th Hour is sufficiently stocked with the familiar motifs of the genre: interrogations in cramped rooms at precinct headquarters; shady characters avoiding stakeouts; shadowy basements and attics with hidden passageways; last minute, nick of time—11th hour [!]—resolutions.

This novel’s eponymous title identifies it as number eleven in The Woman’s Murder Club series and the four club members are present as always: Detective Lindsay Boxer; reporter Cindy Thomas; assistant DA Yuki Castellano; chief medical examiner Dr. Claire Washburn.

Join them in 11th Hour. Be prepared for unexpected, emotional events.


Follow Here To Purchase 11th Hour (Women's Murder Club)